Understanding Restaurant Customers

Welcome to the Restaurant Owner’s Marketing Academy or R.O.M.A. for short. I’m Brad, director of R.O.M.A. curriculum at crispclicks.

In this module we're going to explore the different kinds of customers you might have and a concept called the "ladder of value." Remember, you can pause the video to get a closer look at any of the examples shown throughout this module. We encourage you to take notes. You’ll also have the option to request for summarized notes to be sent to you.

Also, remember that the way you market your restaurant has to be part of a bigger plan. The most important rule is that your plan needs to be built on a strong foundation. If the way your restaurant works internally isn't good, then no matter how hard you try in your marketing, it won't end well due to poor reputation. Now, let's dive into understanding your customers better.

We categorize customers into four types: new customers, infrequent customers, frequent customers, and your dream customers. These groups are based on how often they visit and lifetime value. In other words, how valuable they are over time. Let's do an example comparison with dine-in services.

New customers are those who haven't visited your restaurant or tried your services before. Infrequent customers might visit once or twice a year, maybe for a special occasion like a birthday. They’ll usually come in with a friend, family member, or significant other.

Frequent customers are similar to infrequent ones but visit more often, around 3-6 times a year. While both frequent and infrequent customers can be loyal to some degree, they might choose your restaurant mainly out of convenience, and it's possible they could go somewhere else if it's more convenient for them. Of course, you're going to have your one timers thrown into the mix as well.

Your dream customers are the ones who come in at least once a month and often bring friends. They will most likely get one of their favorite dishes and favorite drink every visit. They love talking about how great your restaurant is to others and they'll help spread the word about your restaurant every chance they get which will bring in more business. These types of customers tend to hold the most value.

The goal is to understand these customer types because they're all at different stages in their journey with your restaurant. The way you talk to them through your marketing & advertising, and the experiences you offer should help move them toward becoming dream customers

This brings us to the ladder of value. This ladder helps you see where your customers are in their journey with you. At the bottom are your leads. There are two types of leads. Unaware leads and aware leads. Overall, they are people who might not know much about your restaurant yet. Your job is to make them aware of what you offer through your marketing and advertising, and hopefully turn them into customers.

Also, your advertisements may trigger “research mode”. Which is good because then your leads will start asking around for referrals, looking at your reviews, probably visit your website and so on. This concept is part of the larger market formula which we will cover in another video.

Next up are new customers who are just getting to know your place. This is where you want to have your hospitality, your service marketing, and your business's core values dialed in. You want new customers to continue to ascend up the ladder of value. You want to make sure they have a great experience so they think about coming back.

The next two stages of the ladder of value are infrequent customers and frequent customers. I’m gonna talk about these together because your new customers will ascend into one of these two stages depending on a variety of circumstances.

For example, an infrequent customer can ascend to a frequent customer just as a frequent customer can descend to an infrequent customer. Regardless, the goal is to provide that same standard of service that got them to ascend to this stage in the first place. This is where, through all of the staff changes, rising food costs, and all, you have to continue to be consistent at maintaining your standards of service to be successful.

Do this consistently, and you will move your customer base into the dream customer stage, turning them into your raving fans. This is where your word of mouth jumps into the driver seat of a ferrari. This is where your customers are paying you, for them to do your marketing via word of mouth.

It's worth noting that the steps on the ladder of value might change a bit depending on the kind of service you provide, like catering versus dine-in. But the main idea is to understand these stages so you can offer the right experiences and move customers up the ladder.

This concludes this video. Links to any resources will be provided in the video description below. If you’d like to leave us feedback for future content that you would like to see, you can do so at the bottom of this page. If you found this information valuable, then spread the love and share it with someone who could use it. Thank you for watching, and I'll see you in the next video.